NextVR is a company on the forefront of the virtual reality industry as its goal is to provide a better way to experience sports. In particular, it is focused on improving the live experience.
“We are by a wide margin the most regular broadcaster and operator of live virtual reality,” said David Cole, the Co-Founder and CEO of NextVR. “Live is a critical part of how we are building our business and attracting viewers.”
So while NextVR has partnered with the NFL for the past two seasons on post-game virtual reality experiences including highlights and also announced on Tuesday a deal with WWE to provide something similar, there could very well be live experiences at NFL games going forward.
NextVR’s NFL VR Experiences host Reggie Bush, the former NFL running back, told Digital Trends that the company recently did a live test of an NFL game. After checking with a PR rep, Cole confirmed that test.
“We are extremely happy with how the test went, it has enabled us to be closer to live NFL,” Cole said.
Technology advancements are also set to improve the virtual reality viewing experience, and NextVR is known for doing live VR broadcasts of NBA League Pass games, with a schedule of 27 games this season. This year, its VR broadcast technology platform will be expanded to make fans feel even more as if they’re really attending the game in person.
Among the new features announced is the progression to Six Degrees of Freedom (6DoF). The current VR model only allows the head to move in three degrees and constrains the viewer “as if their head was in a fish bowl.” With 6DoF, the viewer wearing a headset is able to move and shift their view depending on the action in front of them.
“If the referee is standing in front of your view from our center court camera, you can shift your body and look around them,” Cole said. “That has never been possible in the history of video, to move around in the recorded experience.”
6DoF will only be available on VODs to start, but the technology will soon be coming to live viewing, according to Cole.
“This experience is paradigm shifting,” he said. “It is a recreation of reality. It is no longer a video experience. It is as important as anything we have done in VR to date.”
NextVR will also add augmented reality capability, expanding its platform to support AR devices. The combination of VR and AR creates a mixed reality that allows for a social engagement as the viewer can map the captured experience into the real world.
“An augmented reality device would allow you to see both your current environment and what we have captured,” Cole said. “Take the basketball court and put it on the coffee table in front of you. Remap your wall and make it a portal to the NFL.”
This ability to merge the physical world with the captured one will begin to be available in mid-2018, according to Cole.
“Most of what will drive adoption in VR has yet to be announced,” Cole said. “The goal for us is to be ready with a coffee table NBA game when the devices become available.”
As resolution steadily increases in VR products, the quality of the picture has to match that progression. NextVR has enhanced the detail capture capability of its cameras and encoder infrastructure so that content early this year will be in higher resolution.
“The whole industry is shifting towards higher-resolution displays,” Cole said. “In the NBA, that allows you to see the face of the player from across the court, or the jersey number from our high cam at an NFL game. For a sports viewer, that is the equivalent of going from standard definition to HD.”
As adoption of virtual reality goes up, the price point of virtual reality devices is trending down. That affordability, along with a crazy fast product cycle has the virtual reality world moving at breakneck speeds.
“Resolution is improving, field of view is improving, and the ability to move around freely is improving. All of that has come incredibly fast,” Cole said. “If you think you’ve seen VR, check again.”